The Relevance of Oak to Hardwood flooring

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by: Hannah Nixon
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Word Count: 325
Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2011 Time: 9:24 PM
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There are a number of flooring methods adopted in the construction industry and the type of floor finishings preferred by Builders vary from region to region based on the consideration of cost, availability of materials and common building practices.

Some of the other floorings commonly adopted are paving natural stones, cement tiles, glazed tiles, terracotta and vinyl flooring. Oak Flooring/ Solid Oak Flooring is an age old concept of designing flooring needs of residential, commercial, office, educational institutions interiors. Though traditionally solid flooring was used, today we have the option of using engineered or bonded wooden floorings. The advantages of using wooden floors are manifold. Wooden floors are elegant looking. As wood is a good thermal insulator it can save the occupants from extreme climate changes outside. So it can save on air-conditioning charges. Also it reduces echo in the interiors as it absorbs rather than reflects sound energy.

Also wooden floors are claimed to be helping preventing onset of some of the rheumatic complaints as compared to concrete or cement floorings though the claim is quite arguable. Solid wooden floors are found to be durable in old buildings. But it has a propensity for making slight bending due to climate changes. Also, wood in general is an inflammable material.

Nowadays there is a cheaper option in bonded wooden floorings with oak wood veneers. These manufactured floorings are chemically treated with approved chemicals for durability and fire resistance. Also it is a common practice in some of the areas to provide bitumen coating and lining with bitumen boards, the substructure and foundation part of building, to prevent attacks of termites and other insects.

So, for all practical purposes, bonded flooring is found to be as good and healthy as solid wood flooring, while the cost of installation is much less compared to solid wood flooring. In today's parlance we can say that we are saving on carbon foot print by adopting the engineered flooring option.

About the Author

I wrote this piece about the variety of solid, hardwood floors on offer from world wide sources as i felt the natural preserves of such timbers would soon be diminishing, thus i felt it timely to get this article out about Ambience before the indigenous trees of the UK and globe would still be growing... If you would like to purchase your hardwood floors from a reputable sustainable source, check out this website today.